Planning and managing smaller events: trends, needs and opportunities for downsizing spectacle

This chapter introduces the edited book "Planning and Managing Smaller Events. Downsizing the Urban Spectacle". By defining the structure of the edited book, this chapter depicts the articulation of the international literature on the impacts and legacies of mega-events, and it outlines the research questions on smaller events. As the crisis of mega-events demands for a more sustainable development model, the format of smaller events is more appropriate to the local scale of the host cities and regions, but the results cannot be taken for granted and needs to be analysed.